New York Philharmonic with conductor Jaap van Zweden at David Geffen Hall, Nov. 17.
Tuesday and Wednesday, the Berlin Philharmonic in Roy Thomson Hall. Thursday, the New York Philharmonic in its Lincoln Center home park, now called David Geffen Hall. Will these blockbuster orchestras give me no peace?
Not when Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony is on the program, and the conductor is Jaap van Zweden, making his first appearance with the NYP since he was declared its future music director. This was a big performance guided by a no-nonsense musical executive. I left impressed and maybe a little intimidated.
The opener was the Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin, an essay in shimmering mysticism that can be too little of a good thing if a maestro is more interested in atmosphere than form. Wielding an active rather than allusive baton, van Zweden led the NYP strings along a clear arc to a noble brass chorale and arresting cymbal crash. Wagner intended his overtures to tell a story. The Dutch conductor obliged.
Next came the NYP premiere of Unearth, Release, a viola concerto by Julia Adolphe, who is pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Southern California. Comprising three movements and lasting about 20 minutes, this co-commission by the NYP and the League of American Orchestras is in many respects a traditional piece of craftsmanship. The solo instrument, played with criticism-defeating purity by NYP principal Cynthia Phelps, remains mostly in Bartokian lyrical mode in the first movement, while the orchestra (representing, the composer tells us, “captive voices”) provides the anguish and dissonance. A playful Tom-and-Jerry scherzo follows, then a misty finale, in which the viola aspires to violinistic otherworldliness.
The orchestration was expert. The viola could always be heard. There was nothing revolutionary, but it must stand for something that I found the score easier to appreciate than the prolix William Walton Viola Concerto presented recently by the Toronto Symphony.
Then came Tchaikovsky, and how. Stalwart fanfares were followed by a firm but smartly detailed main theme. Those nervous syncopations had been thoroughly rehearsed, and why not? The waltzing continuation, taken at a true moderato, rose steadily and inevitably to a climax. In the slow movement also we felt sorrow that was in control: even the woodwind lines that decorate the return of the main theme had an according-to-Hoyle quality about them.
After a warmly plucked-out scherzo, the full-blast finale began, with an intensity that is hard to describe. No band surpasses the NYP in heavyweight virtuosity, and van Zweden was not interested in modifying its character on this occasion. Not that anything sounded ill-balanced or overblown. Intonation was impeccable, even at high velocity. But it is odd to welcome the return of the portentous main theme of the symphony, characterized by the composer as a Sword of Damocles, as something of a relief. The NYP surely has firm future with this conductor, who turns 56 in December. (His tenure in New York starts in 2018.) Can they do vulnerability? We shall see.
It was announced from the stage that the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen has won the Philharmonic’s Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music, a $200,000 award that includes a commission for the orchestra. In a pleasantly spontaneous acceptance speech, Andriessen promised something “beautiful.” Some music fans will recognize Marie-José Kravis, married to the financier Henry Kravis, as an ex-wife of conductor Charles Dutoit.
#LUDWIGVAN
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